How to Set Up a Carbon Capture, Utilisation or Storage Company in the UAE

A CCUS business is really one of four businesses: a technology supplier, an industrial capture project, a transport and aggregation operator, or a utilisation or storage developer. In Abu Dhabi, the General Policy on Carbon Capture splits the chain the same way. A Supplier captures the carbon dioxide and answers for it from the point of emission to the delivery point. A Transport System Operator runs shared pipelines and hubs. A Storage Operator injects and monitors. A technology supplier licensing equipment into someone else's plant is closest to an ordinary industrial or trading licence. A company that owns the capture unit at an industrial site brings the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology's classification into scope. A company that owns the injection well or storage reservoir needs an SCFEA concession. The same question arises in a microgrid or distributed-energy company or a waste-to-energy project company, where the asset owner is not always the one who signs the customer contract.

Each authority's interest follows its own mandate, not a shared CCUS checklist. The Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology classifies industrial facilities, so a capture unit bolted onto a cement, steel or petrochemical plant is assessed as part of that facility's industrial profile. The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment sets federal climate policy and is the natural reference point for how captured carbon dioxide is counted and claimed, which matters to a company planning to sell carbon credits. The Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure covers energy-sector policy federally. In Abu Dhabi, the General Policy on Carbon Capture (December 2025, endorsed by the SCFEA) sets the framework: the SCFEA grants storage concessions and approves the licensing regime, and the Competent Authority designated by the Executive Council reviews pipeline works and hub sites. Foreign entities may take part in capture activities, but work inside ADNOC concession areas needs prior written approval or a no-objection letter from ADNOC or the SCFEA, and importing carbon dioxide from outside the UAE for permanent storage needs SCFEA approval. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority governs connection to Dubai's power, water and gas networks, relevant if a capture plant draws feed gas or power from its grid. No body issues a single federal "CCUS licence", so a project outside Abu Dhabi's framework still assembles approvals from whichever body it touches.

Lenders and investors read a CCUS proposal the way they read any industrial infrastructure deal: full-chain source, transport, destination and offtake certainty come before entity structure. Expect questions on performance and long-term risk allocation, the monitoring and verification plan, and who carries leakage or post-closure liability. In Abu Dhabi the policy keeps the Storage Operator liable for leakage until the post-injection monitoring period has expired and the reservoirs are sealed, so a lender will ask whether the project reaches that stage. A business plan and documentation set tying the technical case to the contracts carries more weight than a forecast alone. Investors will also be asked for source of wealth and funds evidence, and corporate bank account readiness, meaning clean ownership records, a coherent use-of-funds narrative and verifiable counterparties, shapes how quickly a bank onboards the company. Where a partner supplies capacity the company relies on, get written confirmation of that right rather than treating a conversation as secured capability.

Subsurface storage, pipeline transport and industrial capture tend to sit better in a project company with clear ownership of the physical asset than in a trading or advisory shell. Where the company carries long-term monitoring and handback liability, that ownership usually needs a regulated and complex ownership setup rather than a plain holding structure, because the entity holding the asset, the one signing the offtake contract and the one carrying post-closure liability can all be different parties. Converting captured carbon dioxide into a saleable product follows the same logic as a sustainable aviation fuel or biofuel company: the offtake contract, not the registration certificate, proves the pathway is real. Technical, health, safety and environmental roles need naming early, since a regulator assessing the facility asks who is accountable for each function, not just who owns the shares.

Words such as approved, certified, compliant or authorised need a named basis, a scope and a date behind them, particularly where storage integrity or credit claims reach customers. A company that gets this wrong usually did the formation step well and the operating step badly: the certificate was real, the chain behind it was not.

A commercial licence is the start of the file, not the end of it. Premises for an industrial capture unit, control room or monitoring facility need to match the activity approved, and a change to the site, process or storage pathway should trigger a fresh look at the approvals in place, not a quiet continuation. Employment and sponsorship follow the operating plan rather than the licence category: technical, HSE and monitoring roles need naming before the first inspection. Cost here is built in layers (formation, approvals, the physical build, people and renewals) rather than one headline number; Velarozone's own fee is itemised separately in the engagement letter, and how Velarozone works sets out how those layers fit together.